Gazelle students reach for careers

Twenty students from Gazelle Elementary School’s sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes paid a visit to the Siskiyou Daily News office in Yreka on Dec. 12 as part of the Siskiyou County Office of Education’s WorkAbility I Program (WAI), a division of a statewide program.

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By John Bowman

Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

By John Bowman

Posted Dec. 19, 2012 at 10:26 AM
Updated Dec 19, 2012 at 10:42 AM

By John Bowman

Posted Dec. 19, 2012 at 10:26 AM
Updated Dec 19, 2012 at 10:42 AM

YREKA

Twenty students from Gazelle Elementary School’s sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes paid a visit to the Siskiyou Daily News office in Yreka on Dec. 12 as part of the Siskiyou County Office of Education’s WorkAbility I Program (WAI), a division of a statewide program. The students took a tour of the administrative, design and marketing departments, newsroom, press room and inserting room to see how each aspect of the newspaper functions.

David Stan heads the program for the Siskiyou County Office of Education and accompanied the students along with Gazelle Elementary teacher Bobbie Hall. He said the program is funded by grants from the state and is intended to foster career awareness and exploration in Siskiyou County students.

According to Stan, special education students are considered to be the target group for the program. “But we feel that if we can benefit all of our students with this effort, so much the better,” said Stan.

The mission of WAI, according to the California Office of Education, is “to promote the involvement of key stakeholders including students, families, educators, employers and other agencies in planning and implementing an array of services that will culminate in successful student transition to employment, lifelong learning and quality of life.”

In 1981, the California Department of Education completed a two-year study that provided substantive information concerning the status of vocational programs for students with disabilities. Results of the study indicated that these students were not being adequately prepared for the labor market. WAI was initiated in November 1981 as a pilot project to test the concept of work experience for youth with disabilities.

The state says the program “continues to successfully conduct interagency coordination of services, which began with a September 1982 Employment Development Department, State Department of Rehabilitation and California Department of Education non-financial interagency agreement.”

Here in Siskiyou County, Stan says the program achieves its goals through activities such as field trips, job shadowing, career fairs and guest speakers. “We serve all of the schools in the county,” he explains, adding, “before we serve a class, we do a career survey in order to get an idea of the career interest in that class.”

Once the survey is completed the WAI program can be custom tailored to each class’ interests and needs in order to better serve them.

During Gazelle Elementary’s Dec. 12 field trip, the students also visited Burger King in Yreka and the KSYC radio station.

According to the state office of education, the WAI program also provides some employment services for students as they transition from high school into the workforce.

For more information about the program visit the California WAI web page at cde.ca.gov/sp/se/sr/wrkabltyI.asp.